News & Views in 2019

The path from ordered assemblies of quantum dots to epitaxially connected quantum dot solids is revealed with X-ray scattering and electron microscopy investigations.

Nanovoids in organic semiconductors can serve as hosts for water inclusions that lead to trapping of electrons and holes.

Reducing the thickness of an amorphous conductive indium tin oxide layer down to a few nanometres has enabled the realization of 40-nm-long channel transistors with remarkable operating characteristics.

Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells have been engineered using gold nanoformulations conjugated with CRISPR capable of targeting two distinct genomic loci of therapeutic interest, with potential engraftment in humanized mouse models.

A high-spatial-resolution force microscopy method combined with a model of cellular mechanics quantifies intracellular forces from nanoscale stiffness patterns at the cell membrane.

Understanding the mechanics of acute kidney injury from toxins, ischemia and sepsis remains challenging. Molecular probes with high renal clearance have now been developed for real-time optical detection of early-stage biomarkers of drug-induced acute kidney injury, and for the understanding of the mechanisms of injury.

Lewis acids are shown to react with water, forming a complex with Brønsted acidity able to effectively dope semiconducting polymers through backbone protonation and internal charge transfer.

Majorana zero modes — useful for quantum computing — are revealed in carbon nanotubes by utilizing a synthetic spin–orbit interaction.

Materials that permit spatiotemporal control of biomolecule presentation have long been a challenge in the field. A method has now been developed to reversibly pattern cell-laden hydrogels with site-specifically immobilized proteins using sortase-mediated transpeptidation without compromising bioactivity.

A strain-tuning technique has been developed to interface multiple quantum dots within the same photonic chip.

With their ability to give rise to many different cell types, stem cells have long been a target of scientists who seek to achieve control over their differentiation. New evidence suggests that stem cells influence their own fates through protein deposition and physical remodelling of their microenvironment.

Violating the Aufbau principle is shown to be a successful strategy to improve the stability of neutral organic radicals used in organic light-emitting diodes.

Thousands of electron diffraction patterns, collected stepwise by scanning transmission electron microscopy, are synchronized and mined to provide unprecedented maps of the nanostructure of ordered domains in organic electronics films.

Granular aluminium — a superconductor with high kinetic inductance — has been used to create a superinductor for a fluxonium superconducting qubit.

Crystallized anti-inflammatory drugs have been shown to inhibit fibrosis on the surface of a number of devices over a long-term period following implantation in rodents and non-human primates.

A chemically and thermally stable metal–organic framework achieves exceptional separation of styrene from a complex mixture containing larger (ethylbenzene) and smaller (toluene and benzene) molecules.

Two-dimensional cobalt oxide and cobalt nickel oxide sheets, with thicknesses around one nanometre, can form spontaneously from the transformation of three-dimensional nanocrystals in a solution-phase synthesis.